Saturday 30th July 2022
Today was our “big day”. After four days of predominantly tarmac walking we were going to follow the Kintyre Way over the hills to Machrihanish. The weather forecast for today had been poor with a weather front moving through but when we awoke this morning the weather forecast was quite good; it seemed the wet weather had come through early and by 10.00 we could expect sunshine and cloud.
We got the 8.00 bus from Campbeltown to Southend and were the only passengers after the first mile. We started walking at 08.30. We passed the notable landmark of the Keil Hotel, a modernist building constructed between 1937 and 1939. It was naval hospital during the war. Between 1947 and 1990 it was a functioning hotel but is now a “building at risk.”
It was dry – just but the cloud was quite low. The first four or five miles are on tarmac, roughly following Breackerie Water up Breakerie Glen to a farm called Amod.
It was now very gloomy, cloud and mist draped the hills around us and it was raining albeit not too heavily for all the difference that made. We crossed the farm bridge and the route immediately turned alongside fields; the grass was very long and very wet. Having opted to wear gaiters rather than waterproof trousers because it was quite warm, the gaiters made a fine conduit for the water from our soaked trousers to fill our boots.
The path crossed a fence by a very high stile onto rough pasture or moorland. It was very tussocky and uneven underfoot making for slow progress then all of a sudden the path was very difficult to follow because the grass was so long. Fortunately there are some blue posts to aim for so long as we could spot them in the mist. After crossing a burn, the path simply climbed steeply through more long grass to the top of Amod Hill.
Shortly before the top and some forestry land, there was a picnic bench and we were very happy to sit there and have our morning coffee stop. It was comfortable but the only view was of the cloud all around us.
We moved on again and the path continued alongside the forestry plantation. The path remained a narrow groove in the ground, at times obscured by the grass but it was definitely there if we looked hard. This brought us to the top of Remuil Hill (302m).
At some point we entered the Largiebaan Nature Reserve
I was struggling to see because of the rain falling on my glasses combined with the steaming up of my lenses as I puffed uphill. Eventually the path levelled off and I had the feeling that there might have been views because the ground seemed to fall away on both sides but who knows?
Eventually I was struggling so much to find the path that I removed my glasses. The reason I wear glasses is a problem with double vision and my glasses have a prism to help correct this. Unfortunately when I remove my specs my eye muscles have to try and correct the double vision and it takes about 15 minutes before they have got their act together. Eventually I have an uneasy compromise; a slightly fuzzy view of the world but not steamed up and not distorted by rivulets of rain.
High up in the middle of nowhere, we dropped down on to a farm track – it seemed rather incongruous but we were not complaining at having ¾ mile of easy walking. The track leads to Largiebaan. Largiebaan was a shieling; a cluster of buildings of stone and turf used as summer accommodation when cattle were grazed on the uplands. We did not actually visit the remains but we could hear a tractor not so very far away.
At Largiebaan the path takes a left turn to head directly west towards the cliff tops. On the way the path goes through a gate with a huge puddle of water rendering it impassable. I tested it with my walking pole and it was quite deep and below the water was soft mud. However, hopping over the fence alongside meant we could just squeeze around it. On the other side of a gate was a another picnic table. This one was at a jaunty 30 degree angle. I think a cow (of which there was ample evidence underfoot) must have leaned on it when scratching and shifted it off its footings. I sat on the end of one bench and my weight was enough to level it up and Jill perched just along from me and we managed to keep an even keel whilst we had half our lunch – with nothing to see but cloud.
Moving on after lunch we continued towards the cliff at Grianan Ardrie.
We lost altitude then came to a gate where the path turned right and climbed steeply uphill. Looking at the map we were right on the edge of the cliffs, but there was nothing we could see. We continued to climb up to the summit at Binnein Fithich (350m) from where we 360 degree view of – nothing but cloud.
Jill went to the edge of the turf to take a photo over the edge and found not being able to see anything very disorientating and disconcerting.
Then we descended steeply and we just followed the blue posts and the narrow path on the ground. At last we dropped out of the cloud and we could see Innean Bay and Sailor’s Grave beneath us. This is one of many locations around the coast of Scotland bearing the name “Sailor’s Grave” where a body that has been washed up, assumed to be that of a sailor, has been buried.
There was a tumbledown wall and so we sat on some of the fallen stones and had the rest of our lunch with a view of the bay, the white stones of the Sailor’s Grave and a washed-up wreck of a sailing boat. Interestingly the sailing boat looks in remarkably good condition for a washed-up boat and the remains of the blue sail are clear to see suggesting it was under sail when it was abandoned. I have been unable to find anything about the history of this boat. For the rest of the walk we would at least be able to see where we were going.
After lunch we turned eastward up Innean Glen. Now we had sunshine and, though we were feeling a little weary, the day was looking up.
It was a steady, stroll gently uphill though the path was quite boggy in places. Once over top of the glen there was a long, gradual descent across boggy moorland to Balygroggan. The name sounded remarkably Irish but we were not many miles from Northern Ireland.
From Balygroggan there a couple of miles of road to Machrihanish where I left the car last night.
It was a sixteen mile walk that felt like twenty. It was an unexpectedly tough walk which took us 7½ hours. The Kintyre Way website says to allow 7-10 hours and so I guess we did alright.
Just Coasting 